


Christine Everhart’s Report

by TessaVance



Series: Zima-Stark Pack [8]
Category: Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Investigations, M/M, Mute Peter Parker, Not What It Looks Like, Pack Dynamics, Pack Family, Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-16 11:06:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29206341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TessaVance/pseuds/TessaVance
Summary: Finally, she had the time to work on the one topic she had love/hate relationship with, Tony Stark.Christine was going to get to the bottom of what was really going on with his mysterious Mate and Pack.This is the Merchant of Death after all, so undoubtedly the pack is filled with criminals all of whom were working on some evil master plan. right?RIGHT?????
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Tony Stark, Steve Rogers/Sleipnir
Series: Zima-Stark Pack [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2026355
Comments: 34
Kudos: 163
Collections: Winteriron all the time





	Christine Everhart’s Report

Christine handed across the USB with her latest report and smirked at her editor. 

“Alright, alright, fine,” He grumbled at her “Go work on your own project,” She smiled triumphantly and turn to head out the door. As per usual, her editor had to have the last word “Remember you only get two months, then it’s back to work on stories I approve.” 

“I understand,” She replied, then fled before he could change his mind again. Finally, she had the time to work on the one topic she had a love/hate relationship with, Tony Stark. She had been busy these last couple of years, either working overseas or digging into the crime underbelly here in America. 

Yet the entire time there had been a nagging thought hovering in the back on her head. The mystery surrounding the Pack that Tony was a part of. It used to be a worldwide accepted fact that Tony Stark had neither a Mate to go with his Permanente mark nor was he part of any Pack. And then somehow the entire world “knew” that Tony had his mate and was part of a pack. This was something they had known for “ages.” 

Christine's nose had told her that something fishy was going on, but she didn’t have the time to really dig into this claim. She had struggled to find the exact date that they introduced the world to the idea of Toy having and pack and couldn’t pinpoint it down. She had to take her hat off to him he was brilliant at slipping tiny bits of information to the public so it became common knowledge without the media frenzy that would normally occur. But now she had time to look into both the dates and the people involved. 

The first thing she did was do an online search to see what was available for the public knowledge. She would build up her information from there. As expected, there were gallons of information on Tony Stark, with probably less than half being true. His mate the Russian also had plenty of photos online. Both with Tony and without. The so call Love Story that explained who he was and how they meet was one of the more brilliant pieces of fiction that was claiming to be true that Christine had come across for quite some time. 

That however was the extent of the proven knowledge of Tony’s pack. There was a lot of speculation that the other adults he fought with, a pale skinned, dark hair man, an ebony skinned handsome son of a bitch and mutant that always was in the form of a giant wolf were also part of his pack. Something that Christine privately agreed with. She would find proof of that first before she publicly stated it. 

The media had blown up at one stage when it became know that there were kids in the pack, but with so long with no other information come out the attention had died off again. This was the part that concerned Christine the most. Tony was a reckless billionaire with no sense of responsibility, and the information on the rest of the pack adults was so shady and sketchy that it raised a lot of red flags. What kind of life would the poor kids have been raised by such adults? 

She packed up her notes and headed over to the house of one of her informants. Knocking on the apartment door, she waited patiently for five minutes before they opened it. The half-asleep rumbled teenager blinked at her twice, then push the door open wider in invitation. Christian stepped into the room, paying no attention to the mess and clutter. She had worked in a lot worse conditions with a much viler people than a teenage computer nerd. Beside the boy always had clean cups and made a decent cup of coffee. She accepted the steaming beverage and joined the teen at his desk. 

“Right,” He mumbled “what are you looking into now?” 

“I need as much information as you can get on Tony Stark’s pack.” 

The teen snorted, then started typing rapidly. 

“This is why I like you lady; you always ask me to look into the good shit.” He brought up the website for the pack registry and after a couple more keystrokes had the pack’s basic info up on the screen. 

“I can get this far, but even I can’t hack any further details,” He hummed thoughtfully. “Looks like your boy is one of the Pack Leaders. And huh, they added another two kids to the pack in the last couple of years,” 

Christine briefly read over his shoulder. “Are you able to print that out for me?” 

“Sure thing,” The teen handed her the sheet of paper, which she read while he continued to hack various sites looking for more information. 

Christine hummed as she read. She had a couple of names now, but not a lot more. 

𝚉𝙸𝙼𝙰-𝚂𝚃𝙰𝚁𝙺 𝙿𝙰𝙲𝙺 𝙼𝙴𝙼𝙱𝙴𝚁𝚂; 

~ 𝙰𝚗𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚗𝚢 𝙴𝚍𝚠𝚊𝚛𝚍 𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚔 - 𝙿𝚎𝚛𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚕𝚢 𝙼𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍 – 𝙿𝚊𝚌𝚔 𝙻𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚉𝚒𝚖𝚊-𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚔 𝙿𝚊𝚌𝚔 

~ 𝚂𝚘𝚕𝚍𝚊’𝚝 𝚉𝚒𝚖𝚊 - 𝙿𝚎𝚛𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚕𝚢 𝙼𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍 – 𝙿𝚊𝚌𝚔 𝙻𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚉𝚒𝚖𝚊-𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚔 𝙿𝚊𝚌𝚔 

~ 𝙻𝚘𝚙𝚝𝚛 𝚂𝚒𝚕𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚝𝚘𝚗𝚐𝚞𝚎 – 𝚄𝚗 𝙼𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍 – 𝙰𝚍𝚞𝚕𝚝 𝚖𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚉𝚒𝚖𝚊-𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚔 𝙿𝚊𝚌𝚔 

~ 𝚂𝚕𝚎𝚒𝚙𝚗𝚒𝚛 𝙻𝚘𝚔𝚒𝚜𝚘𝚗 – 𝚃𝚎𝚖𝚙𝚘𝚛𝚊𝚛𝚢 𝙼𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍 – 𝙰𝚍𝚞𝚕𝚝 𝚖𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚉𝚒𝚖𝚊-𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚔 𝙿𝚊𝚌𝚔 

~ 𝙹𝚊𝚛𝚟𝚒𝚜 𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚔 – 𝚄𝚗 𝙼𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍 – 𝙰𝚍𝚞𝚕𝚝 𝚖𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚉𝚒𝚖𝚊-𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚔 𝙿𝚊𝚌𝚔 

~ 𝙵𝚎𝚗𝚛𝚒𝚛 𝙻𝚘𝚔𝚒𝚜𝚘𝚗 – 𝚄𝚗 𝙼𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍 – 𝙰𝚍𝚞𝚕𝚝 𝚖𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚉𝚒𝚖𝚊-𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚔 𝙿𝚊𝚌𝚔 

~ 𝙹ö𝚛𝚖𝚞𝚗𝚐𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚛 𝙻𝚘𝚔𝚒𝚜𝚘𝚗 – 𝚄𝚗 𝙼𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍 – 𝙲𝚑𝚒𝚕𝚍 𝚖𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚉𝚒𝚖𝚊-𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚔 𝙿𝚊𝚌𝚔 

~ 𝙳𝚞𝚖𝚒 𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚔 – 𝚄𝚗 𝙼𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍 – 𝙲𝚑𝚒𝚕𝚍 𝚖𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚉𝚒𝚖𝚊-𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚔 𝙿𝚊𝚌𝚔 

~ 𝚄𝚜𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚔 – 𝚄𝚗 𝙼𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍 – 𝙲𝚑𝚒𝚕𝚍 𝚖𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚉𝚒𝚖𝚊-𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚔 𝙿𝚊𝚌𝚔 

~ 𝙷𝚎𝚕𝚊 𝙻𝚘𝚔𝚒𝚍𝚘𝚝𝚝𝚒𝚛 – 𝚄𝚗 𝙼𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍 – 𝙲𝚑𝚒𝚕𝚍 𝚖𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚉𝚒𝚖𝚊-𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚔 𝙿𝚊𝚌𝚔 

~ 𝙿𝚎𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝙿𝚊𝚛𝚔𝚎𝚛 𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚔 – 𝚄𝚗 𝙼𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍 – 𝙲𝚑𝚒𝚕𝚍 𝚖𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚉𝚒𝚖𝚊-𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚔 𝙿𝚊𝚌𝚔 

~ 𝚂𝚔ö𝚕𝚕 𝙵𝚎𝚗𝚛𝚒𝚛𝚜𝚘𝚗 – 𝚄𝚗 𝙼𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍 – 𝙲𝚑𝚒𝚕𝚍 𝚖𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚉𝚒𝚖𝚊-𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚔 𝙿𝚊𝚌𝚔 

~ 𝙷𝚊𝚝𝚒 𝙵𝚎𝚗𝚛𝚒𝚛𝚜𝚘𝚗 – 𝚄𝚗 𝙼𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍 – 𝙲𝚑𝚒𝚕𝚍 𝚖𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚉𝚒𝚖𝚊-𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚔 𝙿𝚊𝚌𝚔 

She would spend some time trying to match names to faces. Six adult and seven children. It wasn’t an enormous pack, but going by what she had scented on Tony over the last couple of years it was an incredibly powerful one. Something that if she was right about the pack being a bunch of criminals was an incredibly concerning thought. 

“Frak!” The teen swore. 

“What’s wrong?” 

“Whoever the hell Jarvis is, he is a hacker as well. There is no way you are going to find any more information about the pack on line.” The teen sounds both pissed off and admiring of Jarvis’s skills. 

Christine hummed. It looked like she would do this old school then. Back to using her wits and skill to find out the information. A smile broke out on her face. It had been a while since she got to stretch her investigating legs, so to speak. She looked forward to it. 

She didn’t bother camping outside the tower she knew she would get no information that way. What she did instead was follow anyone who left the tower and who didn’t look like a Stark employee. As expected, there were a couple of mistaken identities. Apparently Stark did not require his R’n’D employees to dress in business casual. But she quickly found the other members of the pack. They were not dressed in their Heroing costume understandably, so it took her a little longer to recognise the people who belonged to the code names: Mischief, Pretty Boy, Winter, and Lupin. Although the last was fairly obvious unless they had more than one Giant Wolf on premises. She was a #team Cap all the way and did not have #team Ironman specs memorised. 

The adults proved to be impossible to follow, no matter what she did, they casually walked out the door into the busy New York crowd then seem to disappear. Frustrated, Christine went a different route and talked to all her sources. 

She got a quick reply from one saying he had details on the one known as Winter which Christine had matched to Solda’t profile. 

“Yeah, this guy, he works as an assassin for hire.” The solider said pointed at the picture of Solda’t. 

“I knew it,” Christine cried jubilantly “I knew they were a bunch of criminals.” 

“Oh, no, you misunderstand,” The solider said. 

“What?” 

“He was hired by the country’s leaders and his assassination save and freed two hundred and six lives.” 

Christine stared at him, bemused. “Are you sure that’s what happened?” 

“Yep, they directly involved my mate in the clean-up. Actually, I think I know of a couple of other case where he did the same thing. Leaders hired him he sneaks in kills off the bad guys rescues the prisoners and sneaks back out again without bring undue attention to the whole situation.” 

“Oh,” Christine blinked and automatically added the notes to her folder. “Well, thanks for the info. Your pay will be in your account by the end of the day.” 

“Pleasure doing business with you, miss.” 

A hero Assassin? She thought doubtfully. Although here at least was proof that the Russian wasn’t what he claimed to be. This was no business executive. But trying to convince people he was a good assassin killing the baddies and helping the poor Robin hood style would be completely impossible. 

Her next stroke of luck came when someone ‘helpfully’ pointed out the picture she was looking at was of Loki. Scenting blood in the water Christine dove into her research only to come up frustrated once again. 

Yes, there were gallons on the destruction and death toll Loki had caused when he led the alien invasion. But someone most likely the mysterious Jarvis had linked each website with a tag that led them to a different site that argued in such a compelling manner that Loki had been brainwashed and under cohesion during the entire incident that even Christine was convinced. To make matters worse, the only violence she could find Loki dealing out in the eight years since was when he was fighting alongside the Avengers in his ‘Mischief’ personification. Otherwise, he seemed to spend all his and sometime her time reading quietly. If Loki was planning to take over the world and rule it as their evil overlord, he was taking the extremely long path to get there. 

She was in a high class quite bar staring at her wine glass wondering where she was going wrong when the drop-dead gorgeous man understandably code named as ‘Pretty Boy’ came into the bar. Christine watched as he settled down at a table. Over the next hour four people came in, spent a short time talking to him, then left again. After the fourth one left, she watched as he stretched out then relaxed, sipping at his drink as he idly scanned the crowd. Business was done then she concluded and now he was people watching. Not wanting to let this golden opportunity pass her by, she walked up to him. 

“Can I buy you a drink?” she asked, sultry. He looked up at her and a slow smile bloomed across his face. 

“Got a drink already,” He lifted his glass to prove his point. “But some company would be lovey.” 

Christine sat down next to him, shivering as his deep smooth voice rolled over her. This would not be the first time she has sex with someone in order to get the goss so to speak, but he was definitely the most handsome and sexy. 

“I’m Christine,” she held out her hand to shake. 

“Sleip,” He replied, kissing her hand. She now had another name identified on her list. It was the only useful information she got from him. Oh, they talked for hours at the bar, but she could never get it to go any deeper than casual flirtation. He wasn’t much of a sports fan. Was # Team Ironman but agreed with her that Captain America was awesome and definitely had fantasied about him before. Not a huge drinker, but when she led him back to her hotel room, he surprised her by being more than a pretty face. She had slept with other beautiful people before, and they genuinely tended to be pretty average in bed. Using their looks to do most of the work for them. Not so with Sleip. 

She was on to her third orgasm of the night and he didn’t even look winded yet. He drew to more out of her, one of them being a screaming one before they were done for the night. 

“Holy hell, I have got to do that again sometime,” Christine panted as she lay sprawled side-wise on the bed. Her pillow chuckled, amused. 

“I had fun too, if we cross paths I wouldn’t be opposed to another round.” Sleip said. 

Christine weakly patted his chest in agreement before crashing unconscious. He was gone in the morning but he had left a rose with a quick note thanking her for the night, alongside a tall glass of water with a covered dish that when she lifted it revealed a bowl of cut fruit pieces. 

“Thoughtful, as well as sexy and a god between the sheets.” Christine popped a piece of watermelon in her mouth. Not exactly the horrible or terrible qualities she needed for the piece she wanted to write. 

She only followed the goth teenager for a single day. It was during school hours and he was walking the streets, hoping that this was proof of him wagging she followed him into a building and up a set of stairs through a set of swinging doors then stopped. This was a medical teaching facility and going by the way they greeted the teen, one that he spent quite a bit of time in. Not wanting to write about the smart teenager who was already in university studying to be a doctor, she stomped back out. 

Her next target was a shaggy brown hair boy. He also was out during school hours but by now she had spotted a couple of tutors coming and going from the tower and reluctantly had to admit it was smart of Tony to privately school the Kits of his Pack. 

Seriously, was this boy for real? She had been following him for the last hour and had whiteness him smile at every, single, person, who walked pass him. Watch him engage in a conversation for fifteen minutes with a homeless person lying on the street sitting right next to them, not put off by either their smell or dirtiness. Feed and pat three stray cats and five stray dogs. Stop to dance and clap at every street musician before giving them money. Before finally entering a private park. The security on the park was nothing she couldn’t handle, and she caught up to him again after ten minutes. 

Peeking through the bushes she froze in horror, oh god she was too far away to stop it from happening, she could do nothing else but what helplessly as the sweetest kid in the world ran towards the man killer beast called Hulk. 

“Huh,” mouth open in shock Christine was not witness to murder, far from it in fact. 

“My Spider!” Hulk bellowed, then gently scooped up the child, placing the boy on his shoulder. 

She walked away sometime later, bemused. She could never look at the green behemoth the same way again. It was hard to fear someone you just spent hours watching as they stuck fingers up their nose to a twelve-year-old who was laughing so hard he was clutching his stomach. Then together build a ‘secret cubby house’ although just how secret it was with Hulk bellowing 

“Build secret house, for Hulk and spider,” 

Every few minutes was up for debate. It had ended with Hulk proceeding to stick out his bottom lip in the world biggest pout because he didn’t want “his Spider” to go home. She gave up. She would write her piece with what she had gotten so far and not follow any more of these infuriating people.

* * *

Christine looked down at the two pieces she had written. Both told the same story about Tony and his pack, one in a positive light and one in a negative. She couldn’t decide which one she wanted to hand in to her editor. Not needing to choose right that second, she decided to sleep on it and see how she felt in the morning. 

She didn’t sleep a wink that night, tossing and turning as a voice in the back of her head asked her if she knew what she was doing, and was this who she really wanted to be. Had their lives really come to this? 

Shadow thick under her eyes, she made herself a coffee and contemplated her choices. Huffing at the ridiculousness of it all, she got dressed then made a phone call asking to speak to Tony. Even with her being known to the Stark industry, she still had to use a hell of a lot of skill to be passed up the chain until she reached Ms Pepper Potts herself. She almost didn’t get any further and only because of her heavy hints of a special report exposing all did she manage to get a meeting set up with Tony for later that day. 

Standing in a meeting room located halfway up the tower with only herself and Tony Stark present, she handed across the negative piece. 

In it Peter was a delinquent running away from school to spend time on the streets and a spending times with monsters, namely Hulk. Jör was a drug dealer because of his access to medication, Fen was a savage beast, Sleip was a prostitute, Loki was the god of mischief, Solda’t a merciless killer, Tony the madman who pulled them all together. Adding in J.A.R.V.I.S as a Skynet in the making and some deformed children it was a terrifying piece. Tony’s eyes became stormier and stormer as he read. By the time he put the piece down his face was scarily blank and the pheromones coming off him would have made a lesser person cower in fear. 

“The thing is,” Christien said before he could speak. “That it’s all bullshit,” 

Tony blinked, thrown off track. 

“Oh, it’s sensational enough and had just the right amount to truth mixed in that people will lap it up and believe it,” She said with contempt. “But I’m not in the habit of printing lies, no matter how well they will sell. I don’t work for the Daily Budge after all. So here is the other piece that puts you in a good light.” 

She handed the next piece across to Tony, who read it bemused. 

“Despite all my effort, it turned in to a tooth rotting fluff piece, something I’m most definitely not known for writing. Your pack is disgustingly sweet and kind and full of good deeds. I do not know how the hell you stand it.” 

“Thank you,” Tony said with a pleased grin. He tapped the piece that had Peter as the kind heart boy he was, befriending everyone. Jör as a doctor in training an even Solda’t as a warrior protecting the innocent. “I like this one better.” 

“The thing is either one will expose your pack to the public,” Christine said trying not to squirm now she was at the sticking point. “You are doing a brilliant job of protecting your pack’s privacy and just letting enough information get out that they can have lives outside of the tower.” She sighed and looked out the window. “I don’t want to ruin that. I expose the truth when it needs to be exposed, I don’t go around ruining good people's lives just for an increase in my ratings.” 

Tony regarded her thoughtfully. “What are you saying exactly?” 

“I will not post either piece,” She removed a USB stick and lay it on the table. “This is the only copy I have of both pieces; you can do with it what you like.” 

Tony picked up the USB and gazed at her, reading the truth in her eyes and her scent. 

“Thank You,” he said sincerely.

The hint of a blush came across her cheeks. Tony when he wanted to could be as charming and charismatic as hell. She could feel the thankfulness and gratitude coming from him, and to be the sole recipient of that from someone of Tony’s calibre was something she rarely experienced. 

“To show my appreciation, would you like to come to the Den and actually meet all the people you have been writing about?” 

“Really?” She asked astonished 

“So long as you don’t have any recording devices on you, yes.” 

“Ah, my handbag has my work equipment in it,” Christine said, putting her phone in the bag as well. Tony smiled at her and escorted her to the elevator. 

“Leave your bag in here, J.A.R.V.I.S will have it held securely for you. And you can collect it from the front desk on your way out.” 

Christine did as he had asked. As the elevator rose, she could feel excitement bubbling up within her. To be invited into a Den of a powerful pack was rare, to be invited into this Den? It was a once in a lifetime opportunity. 

She entered into what appeared to be bedlam, with various pack members rushing around and the smell of food cooking in the open-plan kitchen/ Livingroom they had entered. 

“Welcome to the madhouse,” Tony said cheerfully. There were two of the oddest-looking Puppies, one running in between everyone feet, the other sitting by a window both of them yodelling at the top of their voices. Everyone else was raising their voice in order to be heard over the din the puppies were making. 

The Goth was sulkily stomping around muttering. “I hate when he goes to play with Hulk, I don’t see why I can’t come along.” 

“Because the first and only time you and Hulk meet there ended up being world war three in the front yard of the Avengers compound?” came a familiar voice. She turned and saw Sleip on a couch directing the comment to the teen. “As neither one of you were willing to share your time with Peter, you are now both banded from meeting again. Look on the bright side at least you get alone with Dr Banner just fine.” 

The Teen huffed then turned and spotting both her and Tony stared them down. Now Christine had faced corrupt political leaders, mob boss and everything in between. She had looked all of them in their eyes. So, it bewildered her to find she couldn’t hold the gaze of one moody Teenager. Thankfully, he broke the gaze and threw himself down on one of the couches. 

Just then the elevator door opened again and Solda’t and Peter stepped through. 

“Oh, praise the Norn’s,” Sleip said thankfully, as both puppies stopped howling and ran to the boy with their tails wagging so hard their backside almost lifted off the ground. Peter knelt down and accepted their kisses as he patted them both. He stood up with a puppy under each arm and staggered over to the chair that Jör was in, before sitting down next to the teen. He began to sign but as soon as he stopped patting them the puppies started up their howls. 

“Enough,” Came a female voice, Loki walked out of the kitchen and scooped up both the puppies. She handed one to a stunned Christine says. 

“Please, for the love of mercy pat this child before he drives me out of my mind.” Christine did so, brushing her hand through the silver and black fur that was incredibly soft. Loki doing the same to the ginger puppy in her hand. Both of whom had fallen silent again once they were receiving positive attention. 

“I love my grandbabies I really do, and normally they would not be rewarded for such bad behaviour but they had been superb all day and then Peter was running late and I guess it was a lot to ask someone who is four to be patient that little bit longer.” 

“Right,” Christine agrees vaguely. There were so many things she wanted to question about that brief speech that she didn’t know where to start. Grandbabies? four? She rapidly re-evaluated the canines in question. Turning, she saw she had missed Toy explaining what she was doing her to both Solda’t and Sleip. 

Solda’t gave her a brief nod while Sleip smiled in thanks. He then slipped into the elevator, disappearing from view. 

“It’s nice to have another female in the Den for a bit, mostly it’s just poor Hela with me joining now and then,” Loki said pointing to a corner where a beautiful girl was sitting dressing some dolls. She looked up at the sound of her name and Christine was very glad she had listened to the random rumours that came out of the tower, one of which had talked about a girl with half a face. 

“I’m glad to be of service,” She replied, smiling at the girl. Who gave her a shy look then went back to her dolls. “Us females should always try to help each out when we can.” 

Loki smiled mockingly. “You think you have it hard as a Midgardian woman. I come from one of the long-lived races. Which means instead of being pregnant for nine months, I’m pregnant for seventy-five years.” 

Christine gasped at her in horror and sympathy. “No, really? God, that would be terrible.” She then paused as she realised just how many kids Loki had. “Did you have to go through that with all of your kits?” 

“Thankfully no, I only had to do it with my eldest, the rest I was blessed enough to Sire instead of carrying. But it left me with a deep understand and admiration for the other females in my life.” 

Christine then spent the next hour having a delightful conversation with Loki about the trials and tribulations of being a woman. All the males of the pack gave them a wide birth except for Hati, who was far too young to care what the hell they were talking about so long as Christine didn’t stop giving him tummy rubs. 

She left the Den with a firm friendship in place with Loki and an all but impossible to get invitation to one of the infamous “Spa Days”. Pleased with herself and now doubly glad that she had followed her conscious, she stood in the elevator as it smoothly descended. 

It came to a halt sooner than expected and Christine tilted her head curious when the doors opened and she saw a plain hallway with a lot of doors. Sleip stepped out of one door a moment later and sauntered up to her. 

“What you did was a really decent thing for my pack, and I thought I should thank you for it.” 

“Tony and Soldat already thanked me?” Christine said, happily using this excuse to get her fill of the gorgeousness that was Sleip. 

“I was thinking you might like a more physical thanks to go with the verbal one?” Sleip said with a wicked grin. Christien could feel her inside flutter in excitement as arousal swept through her. 

“Who doesn’t like more thanks?” She sassed back. Sleip laughed and took her hand, placing a kiss on it before leading her to the room he had exited. 

“Oh my,” She gasped as she walked inside to be greeted with the sight of Captain America bare chested wearing nothing but some loose pants and looking a little shy and sheepish. 

“Steve here also wanted to express his thanks,” Sleip drawled into her ear. “So long as you don’t mind?” 

“Nope,” Christine squeaked, not entirely convince she was still awake. Th chances she had slip into one of her fantasy was increasingly likely. “I really, really don’t mind.” 

Either way, she was going to get as much enjoyment out of this as she could. 

It was hours later that a much more dishevelled and completely relaxed Christine that completed her elevator ride and got into the taxi waiting for her to take her home. 

Best piece she never published, ever. 

**The end**

“Where were you earlier?” Tony idly asked Sleip. 

“I was giving Christine my physical thanks.” 

“Ah,” Tony replied 

“Didn’t Steve drop around?” Solda’t asked 

“Yeah, he was happy to give me a ‘helping hand’ so to speak.” Sleip drawled shoving as much innuendo as he could into his voice. 

Tony groan pitifully 

“Why? Why must you constantly torment me so?” 


End file.
